1. Field
One or more embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a method and apparatus for generating a multi-channel audio signal corresponding to a location of an object sound.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, multi-channel speaker systems have been widely used for a rich acoustic effect. A multi-channel speaker system may reproduce a stereoscopic sound by controlling a plurality of speakers for respective channels.
For example, the system may control the plurality of speakers so that only some of the plurality of speakers output a sound corresponding to an object or that some of the plurality of speakers more loudly output the sound corresponding to the object than the other speakers, in order to output the sound as if the sound were actually made at a location of the object. In detail, an audience may feel as if a car were actually moving before their eyes by the system controlling a speaker corresponding to a location of the car on a screen to output an engine sound of the car when a car appears in a movie and controlling speakers corresponding to a moving pathway to output the engine sound of the car when the car moves.
When a three-dimensional (3D) stereoscopic sound effect is produced, the efficiency may be raised and the effect of a stereoscopic sound may be maximized by reproducing an object sound only with some speakers around a location of an object. Therefore, it is recommended that a certain number of speakers closest to a location of an object in a virtual space are selected by using location information of the object. For example, when a vector base amplitude panning (VBAP) technique of reproducing a 3D stereoscopic object sound by using three speakers is used, three speakers corresponding to each object should be selected from among a plurality of speakers.
However, in general, several objects to be represented frequently exist at the same time, and in addition, each of the objects may move, and thus, it is recommended that a time taken to select speakers corresponding to each object is minimized.